The Tween Years : A Parent's Guide for Surviving Those Terrific, Turbulent, and Trying Times - Softcover

Donna G. Corwin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809229951 ISBN 13: 9780809229956

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 1998

Synopsis

When Barbie and G.I. Joe are on their way out and makeup and questionable attire are on their way in, parents are often perplexed at how to handle their quickly and constantly changing child. The Tween Years offers some solutions.

A guide to understanding their child between the volatile years of 9 and 13, this book provides parents with a wealth of commonsense, no-nonsense advice on situations ranging from simple parent/child conflicts to the essentials of communication and encouragement. Featuring humorous personal stories, parent questions and answers, and psychologist interviews, this warm, heartfelt approach will help parents successfully guide their child through the troubled waters between elementary and high school.

About this title

About the Author

Donna G. Corwin is a parenting expert and author of a number of books, including Time-Out for Toddlers, The Time-Out Prescription, The Challenging Child, and Parent Traps. She has also written hundreds of articles on parenting, health, and lifestyles for national magazines. She lives with her husband and tween daughter in Los Angeles.

Reviews

Corwin (The Time-Out Prescription) describes a "Tween" as a "combination of the word teen and in between. Your Tween is in between childhood and the teenage yearsAa time of exploration, growth, change, and turbulence." This observation may be apt, but Corwin, who cites no compelling authority beyond being the mother of a 12-year-old, offers little in the way of practical advice or fresh approaches to parents who have been trying to cope with this latest developmental phase in their heretofore enchanting offspring. How to stimulate your child's intellect? "Get him a subscription to Time or Newsweek." Under the heading "Period!" (after noting that menstruation is a "highly sensitive subject" also known as "curse," "the rag") Corwin suggests, "You should talk with your daughter about why she menstruates" and "you might need to be prepared with Midol and a hot water bottle." The author does, however, offer some useful counsel about discipline and handling conflict: setting boundaries of behavior early on, and holding firm to the disciplinary action chosenAbe it grounding or a work chore.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

There are lots of helpful guides to parenting toddlers and teenagers, but the preteen period, ages 10 to 13, has generally received less attention. Kids in these years begin trying to establish an identity separate from that of their parents, but they're also much more dependent--and childish--than they'll be in high school. Rapid physical and emotional changes can leave both child and parents confused, and communication and discipline present new challenges. Corwin, the mother of a 12-year-old, blends personal stories, responses to parents' questions, interviews with psychologists, and simple, practical advice. Among her most valuable chapters are two that summarize roundtable discussions with "tweens"; appropriately for this age group, one chapter captures a conversation with girls, the other with boys. The "Sensitive Issues" section covers difficult but necessary topics: sex, substance abuse, eating disorders, and depression. Though it would be more useful if it included resource lists, The Tween Years will help parents who think they're the only ones dealing with "tween" problems. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809229951
• ISBN 13: 9780809229956
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176